Sandra Poindexter

Writer

As a data analyst, Sandra Poindexter crunches the numbers to provide information for daily stories as well as short- and long-term investigative projects. In 2011, she was part of a team that won the Nieman Foundation for Journalism’s Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Reporting for the series “Billions to Spend,” which documented mismanagement in a multi-billion dollar program to rebuild Los Angeles’ community colleges. She also shared the 2010 Scripps Howard National Journalism Award for the public service series, “Grading The Teachers.” The series also won the 2010 Philip Meyer Journalism Award from Investigative Reporters and Editors.

Recent Articles

More than three million students across California traded in pencils for computers to take their standardized tests last school year. You might have read about the statewide results of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress: More than half of the state’s public school students...

If the state’s revamped standardized tests are accurately measuring what they set out to measure, one thing is clear: California has miles to go before all of its students are on an equal footing to face an economy that increasingly demands a college degree and stronger workplace skills. The good...

For months, Ro Khanna had one goal in his primary race against eight-term incumbent Rep. Mike Honda: lose by 10 points. If he could come within that margin, the Fremont Democrat reasoned, he stood a good chance of overtaking Honda to win the Silicon Valley seat in November. But when election night...

When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced a new initiative in January aimed at doubling the number of women and minorities in its overwhelmingly white and male ranks by 2020, many asked how such an ambitious goal could possibly be achieved. On June 29, the academy offered...

This year has seen the extension of two Metro lines to affluent communities. The income level around Metro stations can go from twice the amount of Los Angeles County’s median income to well below in a matter of a few stops. We decided to look at median household income levels along all the lines...

With Sunday's Oscar show, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences will close one of the most contentious awards seasons in its history and open an era of historic change, as the 89-year-old institution launches an ambitious drive to diversify its membership. A Los Angeles Times study shows...

To Omar Medina, a security officer working the graveyard shift, attending Northwestern California University School of Law seemed like the ideal way to fulfill his dream of becoming a lawyer. Unlike traditional law schools with high tuitions and entrance requirements, Northwestern California offered...

A short drive in the Los Angeles area can yield big differences in price for knee or hip replacement surgery. New Medicare data show that Inglewood's Centinela Hospital Medical Center billed the federal program $237,063, on average, for joint replacement surgery in 2013. That was the highest charge...